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If you’ve had your head in a book for the past twenty years, you don’t know what I’m talking about. TNT has exploded with the return of a fan favorite series: The Librarians. This time, it’s THE NEXT CHAPTER!
You Mean Those Made-For-TV Movies?!
You’re HALF RIGHT! It started with three made-for-TV format movies starring Noah Wyle. The Librarians has spanned now 2 decades, with the three movies, 42 episodes (Original series), tie-in books, and comics. SO no, it’s not “just” a made-for-tv thing, IT IS A TV THING!
So there’s a NEW Librarian?!
There’s the other part of the HALF-RIGHT! Yes, this is a new series about another Librarian. But this one, Vikram, is from the past. Having gone down in Librarian lore as “The Rogue Librarian,” he used too many magical items for use in his investigations rather than cataloging them away as he should.
The Librarians: “And the Deadly Drekavac” Episode 1
The series premiere is set in the past, where Vikram, played by Callum McGowan, is stuck in his own trap and sealed in a time bubble until he is pulled out 200 years later. A man out of time and out of his crutch; magic, Vikram has a brazen charm and wit as sharp as his flamboyant trench coat.
We later meet his new “assistants,” one a woman of science, Lysa Pascal, played by Olivia Morris, followed by Conner Green, played by Bluey Robinson, as a magic conspiracy vlogger. The duo is swept up in a tidal wave of magic and plot devices to assist the newly freed Vikram, as he had inadvertently brought magic back to Eastern Europe.
Investigating the sudden magic splat of magic, Jacob Stone, played by the swagger-iest Christian Kane, cameos in the premiere to assist as much as he could, while the real assist comes from Vikram’s modern-day new Guardian, Charlie, played by Jessica Green. To not only keep him alive but also in check!
The newly formed team stops the Drekavac, a Slavic mythological creature, using a combination of all their deductive skills, which complement each other, even if their personalities don’t.
This hit all the marks for a premiere episode, as it should for a legacy returning series. Paying homage to previous work and, in true Librarian style, didn’t dillydally with backstory, instead dropping it as needed during the show.
Thank God TNT didn’t skimp on the effects for the Drekavac! Could you imagine that feral ghost werewolf as a Halloween store mask? 😉 (spoilers)
The Librarians: “And the Dance of Doom” Episode @
With Jacob’s blessing, the spit and duct tape formed team has a time limit to get all the re-released magic back. Their first encounter at the theater finds the team trying to discover how these ballerinas are dancing to their death. At the same time, they too are still coming to terms with their personality conflicts. All are trying to find footing. To guide them is Caroline Loncq as Elaine Astalot, who seems to be this iteration’s “Jenkins” character.
This episode again hits the mark with the pacing, story, and character development that is a hallmark of the Librarians series as a whole. But using the location once again to its advantage, pulling from Slavic Lore gives us Western audience watchers new stories and myths to absorb.
Seeing Double
It takes guts for TNT to drop this on Memorial Day weekend! This franchise has such a hardcore fan base that it lived up to the hype! A Second season has already been greenlit; I’m looking forward to seeing how they put all the magic back in the bottle while spilling compelling character stories on screen.
The Breakdown
Speaking of the team: Thank goodness this isn’t a cookie-cutter duplicate of the last team. Switching up the Ezekial Jones thief troupe and making it part of Vikram’s many shortcomings. Also glad they didn’t outright duplicate Jacob Stone. Yes, giving Connor some of those book smarts and having the backstory being dismissed by Academia also gives a nod to the OG Librarian Flynn Carson’s character.
As for Lysa, I’m not yet sold on her. Once again, they went with the hard route, “science girl,” and made her the spitting image of Vikram’s love interest from his original timeline… Cliche! I will give credit where it’s due, she is trying to reverse engineer how magic fits into science, but her nefarious reason for staying didn’t come to light in the second episode. Either stick to the plot or not.
Introducing Mrs. Astalot in the second episode was a great bait and switch! Did not see that coming after the first episode at all! Now I’m no Sir Ywain. But once again, pulling from Arthurian legend tracks one hundredfold! Making her less cantankerous as opposed to the phenomenal performance of John Laqurette’s Jenkins is a smart move! Lady has had to have a life for the past 200 years, and she is wearing it on her sleeve with all the Nanning to go around too!
Each episode can’t be compared to the other, but they each get an 8.75 out of 10
Like I said, the premiere did what it needed to keep the time gap stuff and whys to a minimum while still playing fan service for those in the know, and not excluding the newcomer in the process!
As far as the new team dynamic is concerned, Dean Devlin has struck a nice balance this time, not knocking the OG cast in any way, shape, or form. Considering the gap between shows and how modern technology has become a useful plot device in the show, you can do with one less cast member. Will this play out in more character development now that there is one less mouth to feed? Who knows?!
What did you think of the TWO-NIGHT PREMIERE? Let us know in the Comments below! Don’t forget to grab the clicker and channel surf back here for the Nerd Initiative StreamTEAM and all their great TV and movie reviews!
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